Of Ben Hur and Spartacus (with a nod to Gladiator…..)

The box art

The contents - the rules for both games are in one booklet.

A close up of the gladiator figures - identical to the AH version as I recall. Note the white plastic stands for the figures.

The map is double sided with the chariot circuit on one side….

….and a rather more serious looking side for the arena. I shall be getting this laminated.

Back in the days of the Newham Wargames Club, located in the cellar of Eric Knowles shop - New Model Army Limited, I picked up a copy of an Avalon Hill Game called Gladiator. This was all about man to man combat in Ancient Rome in the arena. It was enormous fun and was released with a separate game called Circus Maximus which covered chariot races. I never played the latter but certainly did the former!

I did not know until fairly recently that these were originally published by Battleline in a combined set - you got both games in one box.

Anyway, I happened across a copy for sale on eBay (which is where I first became aware of the ‘twin set’)  so immediately snapped it up!

For a game from 1979 it is in pretty good condition with only some of the chariot counters punched. 

I seem to remember an expansion set for gladiator being published which included some other types and also some wild animals so I will keep a look out for it. 

The arena seems to be a lot larger than the AH version but I would have to check but in any event it is huge compared to the hexagonal game I purchased from Lidl a while back - which may be turned into a small provincial style arena with the addition of some bits and pieces and a paint job. 

“Nos morituri te salutamus!”

(We who are about to die, salute you…..sorry, couldn’t resist….)

The Nelson Touch

All of these are approaching 50 years old and for sure there is probably more updated material to be found but for all that they are hugely useful. The two titles in the bottom row are recent hardback editions.

No, not THAT Nelson, rather it refers to Richard Nelson - author of the three titles you see above and the inspiration fr my MDF trireme project, focusing on the Battle of Salamis during the Greek and Persian War.

All of these titles are useful in their own way and the book on Salamis is one of my favourite wargaming titles. The Warfleets title also includes the authors ancient naval fleet action rules so again, is pretty helpful in respect of my Salamis project. 

Two rather more modern works. The Persian War title fuses extracts from the great historians of the period with a modern overview of the war.

These five titles form my entire ancient naval library although I shall add the relevant Osprey titles in due course to round it out. It is nicely compact and largely self contained.

Ancient Naval Thoughts

Although my initial plan is for a refight of Salamis I can see no reason why this set up should not cover other actions in the period and indeed, I fully intend to look at other ancient match ups - the Punic Wars could be fun - although I will need to adjust the design for such things as the use of the Corvus or fighting towers and similar. The triremes have been designed without masts but it would be a simple matter to adjust the hull to accommodate them - simply drilling a hole would suffice - and to make some drop in masts and sails. I could not have the holes pre drilled as the hull section is in effect on its side - the top surface of the model is actually the cut side of the MDF. For now though, I will make do with counters to identify if a galley has the sails deployed.

The hexed playing surface will need to have hexes that are 2” across the flat sides for the models (these are 40mm long and designed for one model per hex) which will be handy for when I tackle my 1:2400th WW1 stuff - these models will occupy two hexes. 

Plenty of stuff to be getting on with then - I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Triremes and Salamis

A box of MDF goodies that will eventually become sixty triremes

After what seems like an age my order for sixty triremes has arrived from Warbases! The delay was entirely my fault but they are here at last and are now officially on my to do list. As this lot are destined to be used for a Salamis style action - actually the Greek and Persian was period as a whole - I shall be organising them into their respective contingents and I have a cunning plan to help with the identification. Each contingent will have a colour used on the bows and stern with flagships featuring some fancier decor. For the record I will not actually need sixty but I wanted a few spares for experimentation purposes - mainly the painting.

An imperative now is to source a suitable cloth and to complete the rules - these are based on those found in the book Salamis by Richard Nelson.

I shall be off over the Christmas and New Year holiday so hope to get some painting done, models built, drafts written and above all, the odd game or two!

Triremes Ahoy!

The component parts. Thanks to the suggestion of Kaptain Kobold the angle of the oars was reduced from 45 degrees to 60. I also took the opportunity to reduce the over length. The two sizes of cardboard strip are designed to go on the outriggers as either leather screens or more permanent wicker sides.

A slightly angled overhead view

The view from directly above showing the outriggers to good effect.

At long last and after several self inflicted mistakes I received the final version of my plan for a simple MDF trireme that would be no longer than 4 cm. Martin at Warbases must have the patience of a saint as this simple model has so far taken some four attempts to get right - mainly down to my skill (or lack of) as a draughtsman. Anyways, the final version you can see above so it now means that my planned Salamis project using a slightly ‘pimped’ version of the rules found in Richard Nelson’s book on the battle can enter next phase.

I am really pleased with this simple model and so the order will be going in for the sixty models I need for the battle. I will also need to think about some terrain and the all important hexed cloth (2” across the flat sides if you are interested).

There are plans afoot in respect of organising a battle pack to made available from Warbases but this is very much in the early stages so watch this space.

The Evolution of a Trireme

A and B incorporated a couple of requested tweaks from me - one of which was inspired by that all round good guy, Kaptain Kobold (thanks old chap!) - but my instructions on certain ares were not particularly clear. The final model will incorporate the hull and oar section from A, with the oars reduced in size slightly, and the out riggers from the third model from the top along with the card ‘screens’ of the same length.

By way of a change I received in the post a couple of days ago two samples of triremes following the first version and which incorporated some minor changes. We are not quite there - due to my rather vague instructions - but the next one will be it. My design process is generally quite clumsy and vague and I am sure that Martin at Warbases must grown inwardly as he sets to work to translate my scribblings into something tangible. Between the two of us we eventually muddle through and I take my hat off to him for his patience!

The final adjustments concern the size of the oars - I have requested a reduction on each side of 5mm as the Kaptain Kobold inspired reduction of the angle of ‘sweep’ from 45 degrees to 60 meant that they stood further out from the hull than previously. I also moved the locating ‘slot’ for the oars forward toward the bow by 2mm so they more central. I reckon this will be it.

I have ordered a single example just to ensure that it is all good to go and once signed off the order will be for sixty ships in total. The rules are more of less complete and the only other thing I need to organise is a hexed cloth (2” across the flats), build a Greek temple and paint the models. Simple eh?

It is when you say or write it quickly!

 

Of Galleys and Hoplites

A later version of the classic Warfleets of Antiquity by Richard Nelson which also includes a copy of his Fleet Action Rules 1000 BC to 500 AD, elements of which featured in the book below.

One of my favourite wargames books - I really need to get a copy of the title that features Waterloo!

The Greek and Persian War that culminated in the naval battles of Salamis and the Greek victory at Plataea via Thermopylae and the 300 Spartans is something I have had a soft spot for many years. I even got as far as getting 15mm DBA armies organised for the two sides although like many good ideas it kind of withered on the vine. At the time I think I was going through a cavalry phase and so an army of Hoplites did not really appeal and with the Persians having plenty of mounted troops but much lighter infantry - I like my cavalry to have a solid core of something heavy to support them - it never really stood much of a chance of being turned into anything tangible. At that point I had never even thought about the naval side.

I remember playing the Avalon Hill game Trireme many years ago and enjoying but again, I never really progressed with the idea of actually gaming ancient galley battles using models.

Fast forward to the present day and now an almighty itch needs scratching - fighting the naval battles set during the Greek and Persian Wars. 

But how? I wanted to use models but to be honest did not really fancy anything commercially available despite there being some lovely ranges about. So what to do? A few years ago at a toy soldier show in Sidcup, Kent a club was putting an an ancient naval game using a version of Command and Colours and galleys built from bamboo barbecue skewers. It looked fantastic and so the seed was planted.

Fighting an ancient naval battle

Salamis has exercised a peculiar fascination for me for a variety of reasons and Richard Nelson’s book, despite being published some forty eight years ago, has really served to ‘stoke the obsession’. I would happily use the rules included in his book although they are incomplete - the missing parts can be found in his fleet action rules - but this has not proven to be a major issue to fix and yes, I have.

The rules are hex based - always a plus in my opinion - and are designed with one aim in mind - refighting the battle of Salamis with a notional scale of one model ship equalling around a dozen real ones. There is but a single ship type represented - the trireme - although there are variations as to type employed depending on the contingent being used. 

So I need a trireme, one that does not have a mast and that would be suitable for use by all the main combatants. It also needed to be able to fit in a single hex. Ideally I would like to use hexes that are two inches (50mm to all you metric types) across the flat sides which means that the model should be around 40mm long. After some assorted scribblings I finally managed to get the following design produced by Warbases and needless to say, I am hugely excited about this!

The six parts that make up the model - the central hull, the oar section, two outriggers and two screen sections which are optional.

A side view of the completed model - note the card screens on the outriggers designed to protect the oarsmen

The view from the business end

The view from the stern

A bird’s eye view - the square grid you see is a spare floor tile from our wet room! 

My plan with the models - I will need around sixty of them - is to leave the oar section in its natural colour  and to paint the rest of the model. The bow and stern sections will be painted in bright colours - usually based on the contingent - with the command ships having some extra bling as befits their status. You will notice that there are no masts. This was a deliberate choice as masts were typically removed prior to action but should the need arise it would be easy to add something.

I will need a hexed cloth with 2” hexes and some elements of terrain. A piece of whimsy would be to incorporate a Greek temple - scratch built naturally - just for the sheer hell of it but we shall see.

As far as the land side is concerned I am thinking about something 3mm related so watch this space!

300: Earth and Water

The box lid….

….and the rear

Lurking away in the dim and dusty recesses of my mental project list is an urge to fight the Greek and Persian Wars in some way. The way I had in mind was very much inspired by the campaign set up in Richard Nelson’s book on the battle of Salamis - obviously I was looking at the naval angle. A short while ago I was ready to abandon this project, despite having acquired a pile of 3D printed galleys, as for some reason I could not get the idea properly formed. I put this down to focussing on the ACW ships and the book! Anyways, now that the latter is out in the real world and the former is very close to having this phase completed, I have had rather more thinking space to look at a few things with a clearer head.

Two rather good resources for the naval side of the campaign

Suffice it to say that there are moves afoot to tackle something Greek and Persian war related but I am waiting on something to arrive first of all.

The contents of the box - wooden tokens for the armies and fleets and the Persian pontoon bridge

I saw mention of the game you see above on one of the board game facebook groups I belong to and it is a little belter! Essentially it is a two player refight of the Persian invasion of the 5th century BC - the period that captures Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea - that is card driven and takes around 45 minutes to play! The game is produced by Nuts! Publishing and the components are top quality. Wooden game tokens, sixteen cards to drive the game (each with a Greek and a Persian section) and an A3 sized mounted map board complete the package (along with the D6 required).

The A3 sized map board. My wargaming gene for the land side is thinking “DBA, DBA, Portable Wargame, Portable Wargame!” At this stage I will not divulge my naval thoughts…. 

I can say little more about other than to quote the blurb on the back of the box:

“300: Earth and Water is a strategy game for two players, lasting 30 to 40 minutes. Take the side of the Greeks with Athens and Sparta at their head, or play the Persian Empire led by the King of Kings to see who will control the Eastern Mediterranean. Over the course of five expeditions each player must try to control more cities than their opponent.

Every decision is crucially important, from the choice of the right card to play to the moves you make with your troops on the map.

Be the master of land and sea!”

I have a plan for this game in that given that it is in a small box, takes a short time to play and touches on a subject that I know is dear to at least one of my immediate circle, means that it can travel easily and be played with a beer or two to hand.

He knows who is is….

Greeks and Persians

Some classic Greek history and all in hardback.

I mentioned previously about making use of my Christmas Amazon gift card and the picture above shows just some of the haul. The two WRG books were a little on the indulgent side as they are both hardback versions (I also have the Dark Ages and the Crusades title on a similar basis) and printed to order but with secondhand prices for the armies title coming out at more expensive that the version I purchased I do not feel quite do bad! Warfleets of Antiquity also has a copy of Richard Nelson’s hex based fleet action rules contained therein and of which a stripped down version were used in his book on Salamis.

The big hardback in the centre is a great fusion of ancient writing - mainly Herodotus - and modern interpretation and covers the entire period of the war from Marathon onwards.

The likelihood of me raising armies for this period is remote but the naval side is a different matter. If I went down that particular path then Tumbling Dice would once again feature and the rules of choice would be hex based.

Byzantine Intrigue

The first of the new series and I am hoping that the Arab Conquests and the Crusades feature in due course.

You may recall that a whole ago I picked up a copy of the latest Richard Borg Command and Colours game being the first title for the Medieval period. The scenarios in the game covers various of the battles the Late Romans/Early Byzantines fought against the Huns, Goths and Sassanid Persians. There is certainly an overlap with the Ancients game but the Medieval version, whilst similar in many respects has more than sufficient, dare I say it, ‘Medievalness’ to make a noticeable difference in game play. This is the era of the cavalryman holding sway over the battlefield and the game reflects this with the mounted arm being more effective than previously.

For my own part my interest in this period is limited and if truth be told probably owes much to the novel Count Belisarius by Robert Graves and the WRG books on the Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome and the Dark Ages as anything else. The main reason I acquired this game was for the  inevitable expansions which should cover the period of the Arab Conquests and the Crusades which I am far more interested in. GMT Games (the producers of C and C Medieval as well as the Ancients and Napoleonics series) tend to produce the base game which has everything you need and the expansions which are not usable on their own. They also tend to add in additional units that would complete earlier armies so in order to ensure that one is fully up to date one is almost forces to buy each expansion as it is released for completeness. Cynical marketing ploy? Perhaps, but then I couldn’t possibly comment....

I have a couple of books in my library covering the wars of this period of history and indeed, many moons ago was looking to prepare an Arab Conquest Army (25mm Minifigs) for use with WRG 6 th edition. I never got around to this but an army consisting solely of Irregular A fanatics would have been fun to use!

Coincidentally, at least coinciding with the not-so-recent release of C and C Medieval, comes the following batch of goodness to be released next year by the Plastic Soldier Company.

The rules....

....the first army....

....with the first of the opposition....

....some really useful barbarian types...

....with some marauding light horse.

The army box sets are in 15mm hard plastic and the plan is that they will be launched at Salute next year although the pre orders will be available beforehand. 

You will have probably worked out where my thoughts are heading with this  - using figures instead of the blocks from the game - and I have to say it is a tempting option. I will look forward to seeing the figures when they are released and it is something that I suspect I may well be looking long and hard at. If the Plastic Soldier Company expand the range available to include the Arabs then it would be an absolute no brainer.....

...And I have absolutely no brain (at least the willpower portion of the brain that is!).

"A beast approaches, and it was King Leonidas himself who provoked it."

The climax of the film 300 - the Spartans and Greeks have been betrayed by Ephialtes and are now surrounded by the Persian host. A beautiful death and immortal glory awaits Leonidas and the remains of the 300.

Now I know as well as the next man that the battle of the 300 Spartans as depicted in the film 300 bears little resemblance to what actually happened but it is a great film all the same albeit in a comic book over the top kind of way. I thoroughly enjoyed it, 300: Rise of an Empire less so but it was still a worthy effort. Anyway, the long and short of it was that when the recently launched game by Footsore Miniatures (the company formerly known as Warbanner until the Evil Empire took a degree of umbrage…) Mortal Gods, covering skirmish level games in the Hoplite world (set after the Persian war), then I was always going to take a look at it! So I did and immediately picked up a copy.

The core set contents and yes, there are other figures available as well as sets for Athens and Sparta...

The game contains 32 28mm plastic figures from the Victrix range for the period so there are armoured and unarmoured hoplites, peltasts and slingers. I had a few problems with some of the figures as the box they come in has very little in the way of packaging so the heavy components – two decks of cards and bags of dice and stones have plenty of room to roll around. A quick phone call and all was sorted so some replacement figure sprues are winging their way to me.

The game can best be described as follows:

“Mortal Gods is a skirmish tabletop game played with roughly 15-25 models on each side. Players select their warriors before each game based around a single heroic leader, or ‘Lochagos’, and a number of loyal companions and heroes forming a single Lochos (war band).

Battles are swift and bloody as players alternate acting with one warrior or a group of warriors – moving and fighting to achieve the scenario objectives, whether that be cutting down the enemy, defending an outpost or finding and protecting an important character.

The rules are available as a box set consisting of a Rulebook, Roster Cards, Gift Cards, Omen Cards, Injury Cards, Damage Dice and Mortal Gods Dice.”

To be honest I certainly like the look of the game and there are a few folks at the club that are into this which is useful. However, in my usual way I am looking beyond the obvious and so will be expanding the figure collection to eventually produce a couple of forces the new Osprey rule set Men of Bronze – which covers hoplite warfare with forces around 50 to 80 figures per side. Obviously DBA could feature as well as the Portable Wargame or even Command and Colours should the need arise. There are also plenty of Greek mythological figures around so Dragon Rampant or HoTTs  may even feature.

My plan originally was to put this way down the batting order but it is very tempting to crack on with it as the figures are really nice and with a myriad of uses.

So much for focus....

Boot Sales and Blocks

                                       

                                              From tiny acorns do mighty blocks grow....

As it is a Sunday SMWBO and I headed to our local boot sale for some retail therapy - or, to be more accurate, occasional therapy because it is only occasionally you find some retail to therapise over.....

Today was an interesting day for me as I added a copy of the above book to my collection. I did not see the TV series upon which the book is based but I confess to having a weakness for BBC 'book of the series' publications. As a rule they are good primers for the subject covered so I shall look forward to reading this in due course.

The next acquisition was rather more practical. In the picture above you can see two Jenga type blocks. That on the left formed the basis of my entire block army collection which has featured in countless games over the last couple of years (see the games folder to see what I mean). The two cavalry blocks should remind you of what I mean. If you recall I took the aforementioned blocks and had them sawn in half to form the units I needed. The block on the right comes from the two sets I picked up today and I am really pleased to get these as the size of the block will be ideal for use with Bloody Big Battles. The block measures 3" x 1" and so is an exact multiple of the suggested base size used by the rules. All I will need to do will be to get them cut - I am planning on getting a 1" square block cut off of each - and to tweak the existing labels to fit.

I should point out that the entire expenditure for this lot (and the book) was a mere £1.50.

So, block armies on a non-hexed playing area - for me that is hugely radical and no mistake!

Contemplating My Naval(s)....

Work continues to dominate my life and so my gaming time has been greatly reduced. All I have been able to do is to catch up on a lot of reading although I have now completed the great Command and Colours label-fest. The next step will be organise the rules - all of these will be placed in binders in due course - and tackle the terrain question but this is not something I need to hurry.

Fast play and with lots of D6 - and not a hex in sight....

I was delighted when Osprey announced that they were going to release a set of ancient naval warfare rules and so acquiring a copy was an obvious step for me. The rules, called Poseidon's Warriors - Classical Naval Warfare 480 - 31 BC by John Lambshead, look really good. They are designed for large actions and the rules are fast play for sure. They are not even hex based....Players use squadrons - 5 vessels for the trireme era - and alternate moving these depending on the initiative.
This makes for a very interactive game and places a premium on good tactics.

The book contains not only the rules but also a naval timeline and suggested historical match ups. There is a nice selection of eye candy although if I was being picky I would have liked to have seen some models other than Rod Langtons in action. Don't get me wrong, Langton's models are lovely but my entire collection consists of Navwar models which are less detailed but are easier on the wallet. I will certainly be getting some of his terrain pieces though! My plan is now to use these rules for Salamis - so hexes will not be featuring.

Rounds out my Jutland library very nicely indeed....

The next acquisition is a couple of books concerned with Jutland. I must thank Dave Manley for recommending the Nick Jellicoe title - it really is a first class read - and I have to say I enjoyed the BBC documentary featuring the author. It also leads nicely into The Jutland Scandal. This book is really two books in one as it contains The Truth About Jutland by Rear-Admiral J.E.T Harper and also The Jutland Scandal by Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon. Needless to say certain historical figures did not come out particularly well in either title - and that is a story all of its own.

Command and Colours: Ancients

The set that launched a thousand expansions (well half a dozen really....)

I have dabbled in ancient war games since the early 1980s. I first cut my teeth using WRG 6th edition and had many interesting games using these rules. My first two armies were Carthaginian - one in 25mm and soon after one in 15mm. The 25mm version came from my old friend Chris Hardman and was a mixture of Minifigs, Garrison and probably a few Lamming figures thrown in for good measure. When I acquired it from him all I needed to do was to round up a couple of units and tackle some rebasing and in short order it was in action.

I quickly learned that the army fought best of all when the points values were low so fighting at 1,100 points (including the general) quickly became my preferred Modus Operandi. With the 25mm army (back when 28mm was in fact 25mm) the closest I ever came to fighting anything like contemporary opposition was against Chris Hardman's Seleucids - the 'Swiss army knife' army. As I recall I fought him twice - once at Rochford when we went for 3,000 points and I was comprehensively beaten and the second time at the club when I was able to grind out a draw. Actually we called it a draw as we had run out of time and I was grateful to be offered the same!

The 15mm version did manage to fight a Republican Roman army (in fact it only fought against Republican Romans) but every game I took part in ended in a draw.

The army was great fun to use but it was difficult to win with - at least when yours truly was commanding it - as the troops it contained were fairly ordinary. It was difficult to get the momentum going with them as the troop types were so disparate that coordination was a challenge. Plus the fact I am no Hannibal....

I further dabbled with a Late Imperial Roman Army - that was great fun to use - and also a Classical Indian. I can still recall the Irregular B elephants with a general going impetuous and charging downhill into a Roman Legion - then throwing a maximum plus in the resultant melee! 

I kind of fell out of love with the period (rather I was distracted by other things) until DBA came along and most of my figure games since then have been using these rules. I owned a 15mm Numidian Army  that was fun to use - a throwback to my Carthaginian days I suppose - but have never really pushed on with the period like I did in my early days. However, all of that can now change.

Romans (in red, naturally) and Barbarians prepare to get to get to grips - or should that be Agrippina? The picture is courtesy of Google Images.

Some time ago I acquired a copy of the Richard Borg designed Command and Colours: Ancients. This has been a successful series and covers warfare in the ancient world from the time of the Hoplites until the fall of Rome. the basic game covers the Punic Wars and the expansions cover the wars of Alexander and his Successors, the rise of Rome and the end of the Hellenistic era, the wars against the various Barbarians, the wars against the Persians from the Hoplites until Imperial Rome and the final stands of the Legions. In common with the other Command and Colours games the action is card driven and the units follow the usual 4, 3 and 2 block size standard.

Aside from the official scenarios contained in the rule books the game is really well supported with a whole world of internet based goodies - rules variants, army lists, scenarios and much else besides.

I have in addition to the base game a whole pile of blocks from the expansion sets so the collection is pretty complete. With the material I have to hand I should be able to fight pretty much any kind of ancient battle and whilst this will not be my main area of endeavour it certainly gives me something a little different to dabble in. I am not expecting to go down the figure route with this as the blocks are perfectly adequate.

Hopefully I may have better luck with the Carthaginians than I ever did using figures all those years ago!

Salamis....Part 2

Refighting an Ancient Naval Battle

Okay then. I have most of the models and terrain, the rules I plan to use and sufficient research material upon which to base the project - so I am in pretty good shape, right?

Wrong!

All of the four areas mentioned need work - and lots of it. Taking each area individually makes the whole look a little less daunting and so this is the plan of sorts.

The terrain is relatively straightforward and is merely a case of, in effect, replicating the hexed playing area from Richard Nelson's book. there are a number of photographs of the game in progress so this should be easy enough to do. Nelson used a smaller hex size than I am and also a larger playing area but I am thinking having the reduced size would be no great loss as pretty much all of the conflict was in a confined space. The land will be represented by use of the appropriate Heroscape tiles and, I will crave a certain degree of artistic licence here, a couple of 1/1200th buildings from Rod Langton's range. I rather fancy the notion of a Greek temple or two dotted about....;-)

The models are of primary consideration and the last of these I plan to acquire this weekend from Navwar. That will leave me with some 54 triremes to paint. The models will be based on 40 by 30mm bases - I shall be using those available from Essex Miniatures for this - and I will be naming the models by contingent for example Sparta 1 or Ionia 4. Each contingent will have a designated flagship which will also be marked. I will be producing the models with the mast deployed rather than left off (which would be more historically accurate) as it will mean that I will not have to fill the large hole in the middle of the main deck! I also plan to use 15mm ancient greek shield decals (available from Essex Miniatures and produced by Veni, Vidi, Vici) on the sails for a further piece of artistic indulgence. The first step with this part of the project remains the trip to Navwar and then the grand assembly and undercoat.

The rules are taken straight from Nelson's book but I will need to type these up and produce a quick reference sheet and the fleet lists. This should not be too difficult and has the advantage of being something I can do on the train. The rules need to be extracted from the text as they contain a number of examples of play and what could be considered designer's notes which means that they occupy a chapter rather than a couple of sides of A4. For clarity I can reference his fleet action rules from which the book set were derived if required.

The research aspect will of course mean reading, reading and more reading. I have a modest section in my library devoted to ancient naval warfare and a couple of titles specifically on Salamis. These will be revisited as will some of the histories that cover the period - Herodotus being the main one for the present. I will also take a look at a couple of rule sets that have Salamis as a scenario as this can be useful as well.

I am rather excited about undertaking this project at last and hope that the techniques employed will serve me well for some similar ideas I have in mind. I have some later ancient galleys from the Punic and Civil Wars period so the potential is there for some more refights - Actium springs to mind. I would also certainly envisage using Heroscape for some river based naval action from the ACW in 1/2400th but I also have a couple of 'wind and water' ideas as well - and probably not what you would expect!

Salamis....Part One

A map of the battle of Salamis 480 B.C.

One of the particularly helpful benefits of my recent Heroscape acquisitions has been the greatly increased number of blue 'water' tiles I have accrued. I now posses over 250 and this will give my small scale model naval games a major boost as these can look a little lost in a standard Hexon tile. Going forward the plan is to use the Heroscape water tiles in conjunction with the normal land based version to be able to models river banks, coastal areas and such like. My interest initially centred on the ancient period and the use of 1/1200th galleys but I am already thinking about 1/2400th for the Armada, the Anglo Dutch Wars (I bet you did not see that one coming!) and possibly the ACW/Victorian naval. Taking it further forward in time possibly even WW1 and WW2 using 1/4800th or 1/6000th but that is a long way off.






I guess it may have been easier just to get a plain blue hexed mat for naval games but for me that misses the point. I like the idea of having some land as terrain - either riverbanks or coastline - especially as many of my gaming ideas involve combined operations and similar. Heroscape lends itself very well to this approach and for me offers a lot of potential.



The Persian King of Kings, Xerxes, looks on at the unfolding catastrophe

I have acquired a modest collection of Navwar 1/1200th ancient galleys - including some later types for the Punic Wars - and am looking to use these for a refight of the battle of Salamis. This was one of the most significant naval battles in history and my inspiration for this project has come from various sources. Many years ago I used to play the Avalon Hill game Trireme which was huge fun. I never used models but always planned to do so at some point. Fast forward a few years and I had the good fortune to pick up a copy of Richard Nelson's book on the subject published in the Battles for Wargamers series. A copy of his fleet action rules published by WRG appeared courtesy of EBay and a copy of Warfleets of Antiquity from my good friend Chris Hardman.


The rules from book by Richard Nelson are in effect a cut down version of the WRG set. they feature enough detail to cover the refight of the actual battle and in terms of the number of ships involved he uses a scale of 1 model equalling 12 actual ships. Based on the sources he has used this translates into 54 models - which is eminently achievable. I only need a further 16 triremes from Navwar (not as detailed as Rod Langton but a lot cheaper!) and I will be good to go.


I will have to make some important decisions about the models. They are all going to based on a 40mm by 30mm base with the nationality and number as a label. That much I have decided upon but the main area of contention concerns sails. Do I have them mounted on the ship or do I leave them off? The former would look better but the latter is more historically accurate. I did toy with having them detachable but in 1/1200th they are a little on the fiddly side. An associated problem is there is a huge hole in the deck where the mast is stepped which is quite an eyesore without the mast in place. Of all the options I am leaning towards having the masts in place - simply because the models look nicer.


Ah but what of Jutland? I can almost hear a collective sigh as yet another project is launched. I shall be tackling something Jutland based to commemorate the anniversary next year but it is unlikely that models will feature. Salamis however is a lot more achievable and so my naval efforts will be focusing on this for the next few months. the final models will be acquired at the weekend.

More on Heroscape

Following on from my last post I have managed to acquire another set of the figures from Heroscape as well as a complete copy of the game courtesy of EBay. Aside from the terrain tiles it means that the figure selection now consists of three sets which will be enough for me to be going on with. Dragon Rampant - the fantsy version of Lion Rampant - should be out in December so if I get a move on I should be ahead of the curve for a change with some models ready to go.

The first lot I will be tackling will be the Viking types which are suitably heroic looking and ideal for a fantasy type set up. There are also some Samurai types - more like well dressed Ronin to be honest that look pretty good and should be useful. The rest of the models are mainly sci-fi types (excepting the dragon of course) which is not a problem as I will have a use for them as well.

The great thing about skirmish level games is of course the fact that you do not need a huge number of figures and so are a good option for me at the present especially as even a DBA army presents a real challenge in terms of time to prepare.

The terrain tiles I am especially pleased with as I have a number of plans for these. You may recall that I have a large selection of these that have been flocked and painted courtesy of Bob Cordery which I have used for a couple of games. The plan is to use the additional tiles for a desert type set up (Bob's old set is in grass green) in due course and I may well be tacking this as my Christmas project. My firm shuts down from Christmas Eve until the New Year so tackling terrain will make a pleasant change from eating, drinking and watching endless repeats on the TV!

The blue tiles are also very welcome as I now have sufficient to make a 13 by 9 hex playing area - the standard Command and Colours battlefield - ideally suited to smaller scale ship models. This will enable me to revisit my 1/1200th Ancient galleys in due course and the often mentioned Salamis type project.

Much to ponder methinks.

Favourite Rules

Over the course of my Wargames career  must have tried umpteen set of rules - ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. I have used rules that are incredibly complicated (and have had the headaches to prove it) and those that are incredibly simple - as I suspect most readers of the blog have at one time or another. As part of my ongoing and angst ridden struggle to decide on that which floats my boat in the best possible way from a Wargames perspective it crossed my mind that perhaps this is a question that many gamers can relate to - what are your favourite rules and why?

For myself as it stands at present the two types of rules are probably unsurprising - namely Command and Colours and DBA. It is easy to see why. Both sets are readily usable for a variety of periods and still yield very gameable results - using DBA as an example who would have thought that they could have been used (and abused) for so many different periods? Clearly this is a set of rules of no common clay! The same could be said of Command and Colours.

I am going to put this challenge out into the Wargames ether. I would love to hear about your top 5 sets of rules (and why) and to set the ball rolling mine are listed below. There are no prizes as this is just a little bit of fun. These are in no particular order as this is not a poll as such.

1. Charge! - nostalgic for sure but enormous fun all the same
2. Battle - often imitated but the original probably did more for WW2 gaming than anything other set I could think of.
3. DBA - taking figure gaming into a whole new abstract direction and for the huge number of derived sets
4. Command and Colours - many of the DBA comments could be applied to this system
5. Ship of the Line - these were the rules that inspired Wooden Ships and Iron Men. The combat and damage system for naval combat was absolutely first class and spawned a host of other sets.

Significantly the authors of three of my top five are no longer with us but their legacy lives on. These are very much my personal choices so I am not looking for criticism! It would be fun though to hear about other gamer's choices.

Ancients Revisted

                                  

                                          One of those dangerously inspirational tomes.....

Way back in the early 1980s when I first began gaming at the Newham Wargames Club there was a lot of interest in 6mm ancient wargames using WRG 6th edition. There were numerous armies around ranging from Sassanid Persian to Seleucid via late Byzantine and many others besides. There were also armies in 15mm and 25mm (28mm as it became). In fact the first ancient army I owned was a 25mm Carthaginian army with figures from a variety of manufacturers. Under 6th edition it weighed in at nearly 3,500 points and was huge. It was great fun to use although it was a struggle to win with it - I tended to consider having had a good game if I managed to fight the opposition to a standstill! To cut a long story short I abandoned ancients when the 7th edition came along - not due to the rules but at the time a number of things were going on in the real world that derailed my gaming for a while - and only really picked it up after a fashion when DBA appeared. I flirted briefly with the naval side  - as I recall using a set of rules called Diekplus - but not to any great degree.

I must confess to having a soft spot for ancients and with the Carthaginians in particular and I have often considered dabbling once again in the second Punic War. The wars of the Roman Republic from Hannibal up to Mark Anthony's final defeat at Actium in 31 BC have long fascinated me - more so than wars of the later empire - and I have a modest library covering the era to delve into as the mood takes me. The title you see above is one such volume and it is a cracking good read. The naval side of this era was very active and it would not be too difficult to cobble together some forces to game with. I have a selection of galleys that could be used readily enough - if you recall I was toying with something Salamis related a while ago - and as a quick fix it has much to commend it. Ironically there is DBA ancient naval version kicking around the net which would mean even less work to get the forces readied for action. 

As far as the land side is concerned the prospect of using Command and Colours with figures is tempting (and Tim Gow of Megablitz and More fame has featured this on his blog on many occasions) but would probably need more figures than I would prefer to acquire. DBA is another story though. 

Greek and Persian Galley Stuff

The Battle of Salamis - with a little artistic licence re the sails which would normally be lowered or even left on shore.

Way back in the first half of last year I was mooting the possibility of tackling some ancient galley action in conjunction with the appropriate parts of Command and Colours Ancients. My period of choice was going to be the Greek and Persian Wars and this was inspired by the acquisition of Richard Nelson's books on Salamis, Warfleets of Antiquity and his hex based fleet action rules published by WRG.

My thoughts initially were to use a more detailed set of rules than those published in his book on Salamis but now I am not so sure. My original post More on Ancient Naval Warfare Rules outlined some of my thinking but as I am now looking to include the naval side in the campaign as a whole (which I am sure you do not need reminding included Thermopylae and Plataea). Richard Nelson includes rules for handling the Persian invasion on a strategic level which could easily be translated into Command and Colours forces as well as the fleets involved. It would not need a huge amount of work to get ready - in fact the only issue I currently face is painting the 60 odd galleys required.

I am looking to tackling this as the land side has always interested me and so having both elements available to game would tick a number of boxes.

Ancient and Renaissance Blocks

The great block reorganisation has made some significant progress this weekend as the core sets for red, blue, grey and grey have been completed. It was not quite as onerous as I originally expected but was time-consuming all the same. One thing it has made me think long and hard about though is the possibility of using the block armies for earlier periods of warfare.

I have previously mentioned that I have played ancient games on a number of occasions and have owned Carthaginian, Ancient Indian, Gallic, Viking and Late Imperial Roman armies over the years. At the present time I do not own any painted ancient armies - in fact, the only ancient exposure I have is a complete set of all the Command and Colours Ancients series of games by Richard Borg (as I do for most of the Napoleonics as well). Now you could be forgiven for thinking that as devoted block user having these units available via the games would be sufficient for my needs. To be honest I certainly thought so but now am not so sure. The Command and Colours blocks are really good to look at but my feeling now is that it would be more in keeping with my current usage to use blocks of my own design.

Initially when I thought about this my head quickly became filled with a myriad of unit type permutations - pikes, spears, javelins, archers, swordsmen etc - which threatened to derail the entire idea or at least making it incredibly complicated. I then stepped back and thought about it rationally (which sets a rather dangerous precedent for me!).

Now that I have added some distinguishing marks to the existing horse and musket blocks - the black and white stripes - I should easily be able to differentiate between troop types so, for example, I could have Roman legionaries, auxiliary infantry and assorted allies represented readily enough. The same principle could be applied to cavalry so everything from Pathian Cataphracts to Numidian light horse can also be tackled simply by designating the appropriate label as the specific type required.

I must confess that my thinking was helped somewhat by referring to my copies of both DBA and HOTTs for reasons that are easy to see. As both sets of rules merge similar troop types into unit categories it makes it a lot easier to represent units using blocks - as long as they are clearly defined beforehand. This is something I will need to work out but to be honest, will be fairly straightforward to do by making use of the aforementioned different labels types and by standardising unit compositions in some way.

The biggest single problem I am facing with tackling this project is how to represent formed bodies of troops are with ranged weapons. The horse and musket era assumes that all infantry types are armed with a firearm of some kind (excepting those blocks used for native types - Zulus etc) but in the earlier period having having some way of identifying separate 'shooters and fighters' is required. After thinking about this I have decided that a new label type, based on the standard infantry label, will need to be designed. This will enable units of formed shooters to be represented and, by dint of the idea I am currently pursuing, will also double for pike units during the Renaissance period where the standard infantry block can be used as per its more usual horse and musket incarnation.

I realise this may seem a little on the confusing side for which I can only apologise but once the new block type is ready it will all make a lot more sense.

The plan is to tackle the ancient (taken in its 1500 and earlier guise) era and also the Renaissance in some fashion - simply because the lure of the Ottoman Turks of the period is something that I am unable to resist.